Beauty as well as bread

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike.”

-John Muir

There are so many reasons I take the girls into the mountains as often as I can.

I want them to learn that there is more, so much more than what the world shouts down at them.

In the rocks and trees, they find themselves a little more each time.

They conquer fear and doubt. They find what they are capable of.

Their minds come alive, and all that the world screams at them about womanhood blows away as the wind rushes through the trees.

Questions and answers come more readily. What is important and what is not becomes starkly clear.

Bonds are forged. Fear is conquered together.

True, honest awe and reverence are felt.

There are literally a thousand windows into heaven, and through those windows, they see the face of God.

They see themselves and what they are capable of. They see glimpses of who they truly are.

I feel an urgency inside lately. I can’t quite describe it. But everything inside of me tells me that more than any flurry of activity or schedule of important tasks, these little women need to know, absolutely, who and what they are. They need to understand it and embrace it.

How could you ever stand in the tall pines at the top of the world and not hear God’s whisper?

Right now, this summer, that is my gift to them.

“Nature–the sublime, the harsh, and the beautiful–offers something that the street or gated community or computer game cannot. Nature presents the young with something so much greater than they are; it offers an environment where they can easily contemplate infinity and eternity.”

-Richard Louv

Related

2 Responses

Beautiful pictures and message. We love to spend as much time in the mountains as we can. We often go up the canyon and sit and relax, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over a fire, and enjoying nature.